Esther M. Zimmer Lederberg
Michael Drayton Ideas Mirrour 1594 :Sonnet XLVIII
Who list to praise the dayes delicious lyght,
Let him compare it to her heauenly eye,
The sun-beames to the lustre of her sight;
So may the learned like the similie.
The mornings Crimson to her lyps alike,
The sweet of Eden to her breathes perfume,
The fayre Elizia to her fayrer cheeke,
Vnto her veynes the onely Phœnix plume.
The Angels tresses to her tressed hayre,
The Galixia to her more then white.
Praysing the fayrest, compare it to my faire,
Still naming her in naming all delight.
So may he grace all these in her alone,
Superlatiue in all comparison.
Commentary:
A blazon!
Object
Description
Elizia
Cheek fair
Sight (eyes)
Sun-beams
Lips
Crimson
Breath
Eden's perfume
Veins
Phœnix' plume
Hair in tresses
Angel's tresses
White color
Galixia's color 1
1
Statue in Cyprus that came to life. Renaissance and
Baroque gardens often had "automated" statues. Using
hidden water wheels, statues could move along hidden
tracks, turn around, etc. All people of wealth viewed
these automata, so such statues and ideas were commonplace
in Elizabethan England, France, Italy, Austria, etc.
The ignorant, uneducated, illiterate thought that only
living things could move, thus such automata were mistakenly
thought to come alive. People living in these aristocratic
palaces were thought to live forever, as these moving statues
moved, from generation to generation to generation (forever,
like gods). The peasants thought it futile to oppose gods.
Website Terms of Use